1890

Punch Cards

Punch Cards

Punch cards are paper cards in which holes may be punched by hand or machine to represent computer
data and instructions. They were the most common way to store data

1898

78-rpm records

78-rpm records

Any flat disc record, made between about 1898 and the late 1950s and playing at a speed around 78
revolutions per minute is called a "78" by collectors. The materials of which discs were made and with
which they were coated were also various; shellac eventually became the commonest material.

1950

Magnetic tape data storage

Magnetic tape data storage

Magnetic tape data storage is a system for storing digital information on magnetic tape using digital
recording. Initially, large open reels were the most common format, but modern magnetic tape is most
commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. Not really used today due to the tape being
inconvenient to use.

1963

Cassette tape

Cassette tape

The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the cassette tape or simply tape or
cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. It was
developed by Philips in Hasselt, Belgium, and introduced in September 1963. Not used very often except
to play some old song or movie.

1963

Hard disk drive

Hard disk drive

A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk[b] is an electro-mechanical data storage
device that uses magnetic storage to store and retrieve digital data using one or more rigid rapidly
rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually
arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. They are still used
today as extra cheap storage space on a computer.

1966

Punched tape

Punched tape

Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage that consists of a long strip of paper in
which holes are punched. Now effectively obsolete, it was widely used during much of the 20th century
for teleprinter communication, for input to computers of the 1950s and 1960s, and later as a storage
medium for minicomputers and CNC machine tools. Not used today since computers don't have the
ability to read the tape anymore

Period: 1970 to 2000

Floppy disks

A floppy disk, also known as a floppy, diskette, or simply disk, is a type of disk storage composed of a
disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic enclosure lined with
fabric that removes dust particles. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive (FDD).Floppy
disks, initially as 8-inch (203 mm) media and later in 5 1⁄4-inch (133 mm) and 3 1⁄2 inch (90 mm) sizes. Not
really used today due to having better means of storing things.

1982

Compact disk(CD)

Compact disk(CD)

digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony and released in
1982.The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings (CD-DA) but was later
adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Still some what used today since they are cheap.

a solid-state disk,[1] although SSDs lack the physical spinning disks and movable read-write heads used
in hard drives ("HDD") or floppy disks.

1996

USB storage

USB storage
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables and
connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply between computers,
peripheral devices and other computers.[3] Released in 1996, the USB standard is currently maintained
by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF). There have been four generations of USB specifications: USB
1.x, USB 2.0, USB 3.x and USB4. Very much used today as external storage units.

1999

SD card

SD card

Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile memory card format developed
by the SD Card Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.The standard was introduced in August
1999 by joint efforts between SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric) and Toshiba as an improvement
over MultiMediaCards (MMC), and has become the industry standard. Are still used today in phones and
cameras to allow more storage in those devices.

2000

Cloud Storage

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools. The
physical storage spans multiple servers, and the physical environment is typically owned and managed
by a hosting company. These cloud storage providers are responsible for keeping the data available and
accessible, and the physical environment protected and running. People and organizations buy or lease
storage capacity from the providers to store user, organization, or application data.